Excursion leaders should be ashamed

THE EDITOR: There are many reasons why our society has devolved into the state in which we find ourselves. In my opinion, one of those reasons is that bad behaviour seems to be rewarded often.

The most recent example of this is the group of approximately 100 children and 50 adults that went to England knowing that it had no funds for accommodation or meals and expecting assistance from everyone, including the Government, after tarnishing the country’s image. These people also placed TT nationals at risk for visa restrictions to the UK.

The excuse given by the leader of this excursion is that they did not want to disappoint the children. The adults missed a golden opportunity to teach those unfortunate children one of life’s difficult lessons: Sometimes there are major disappointments in life, but we have to adjust our goals and, although it may take longer, work towards them.

Instead, the adults taught the children that we can do something wrong, shame and manipulate others and expect someone to bail us out.

If our adults think like that, what can we expect of our children?

If I were the Minister of Foreign Affairs or the Chief Secretary of the Tobago House of Assembly, I would have asked the Government to pay the change-of-date fees on the tickets and told the members of the group that they had the option to return home immediately.

What about the money raised through GoFundMe? I hope that it is used to contribute to their expenses and not stored away for future trips. The group has a responsibility to use those funds for the purpose to which they were intended.

Those adults placed the children at considerable risk and should be ashamed of themselves.

TARA RAHAMUT

Chaguanas